Opening Saturday, September 29th, from 12 PM - 6 PM

On view through Sunday, September 30th

This summer at Ace Hotel Chicago, artist Azikiwe Mohammed stages a performative installation of his fictional thrift store, “Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime.”

New Davonhaime—a location conceived by Mohammed—is an amalgamation of the names of the five most densely populated Black cities in America: New Orleans, Detroit, Jackson, Birmingham, and Savannah. “Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime” was created to serve as a safe space for Black and Brown people living in America.

Through September 30, Ace Hotel Chicago’s first floor gallery will be transformed into a thrift store installation containing objects both created and found by Mohammed. Visitors will also find traces of “Jimmy’s Thrift of New Davonhaime” throughout the hotel, including a custom Spotify playlist, New Davonhaime merchandise in the Ace Hotel Store, and “Earl Hansberry,” a themed cocktail developed by Ace Hotel with Mohammed for the run of the exhibition. $1 of each beverage purchased at City Mouse will be donated to 826CHI, a nonprofit writing, tutoring, and publishing center in Chicago.

Mohammed will be on site for the closing of the exhibition during EXPO CHICAGO. Performing as thrift store owner Jimmy, Mohammed will offer critical conversations and accept donations from the public in the form of photographs to be added to Mohammed’s Black Community Family Albums. Mohammed will also be accepting contributions to the “My First Time” record series, a series of artist made records where Black and Brown people re-count the first time they “realized” they were Black or Brown. Both living archives offer an intimate and nuanced portrait of Black lives both contemporary and past.